There is a lot of talk about the ROI of social media.  This is a tough thing to judge- no one will argue that point.  But there are things that you can do to ensure that you’re recognizing if your efforts are having any kind of positive effect. I get asked about this a lot so I’m going to do 2-part guide that hopefully you’ll find useful.

The first is to start tracking your URLs. If you post a link, then you probably need to know how many people had clicked on it, right?  URL shorteners are perfect for this.

TinyURL used to be the only thing that I knew about, and then what happened- Twitter exploded, growing 1382% from Februrary ‘08 to Feb. ‘09.  People needed a more elegant solution to understanding how all these Tweets were being used, so came the slew of URL services that are available now:  Bit.ly, ow.ly, tr.im, just to name a few.

I would say that Bit.ly is in the lead, but that could change by the time you read this. According to Mashable, Bit.ly was on its way to crushing TinyURL shortly after its 1 year birthday in mid-July.

How do I use a URL Shortener for tracking?

I’m only going to cover bit.ly since that is all I use and I find it to be the best service for my needs. You’re going to need an Account on Bit.ly before you do anything, so go create one.   Once you get an account created, the interface should be pretty self-explanatory on the site itself.  Step 1: paste link into box.  Step 2: Click ‘Shorten’ and there you go.

The power of Bit.ly is that you can then go back to your account and see detailed stats of how many clicks were made on your link, when they were made, and to some degree- where.

Once you add a few links, you’ll be able to see the whole list of them.  You’ll see the title of the page you linked, and you’ll see two numbers.  The smaller number on top is how many times your shortened link was clicked on.  The second, larger number is the number of total clicks to that link that could be tracked by Bit.ly.  This means that you’ll see how many people clicked on your link vs. the total number of all clicks on Bit.ly links that go to that page.

Viewing your stats, the easy way:

You can always scroll back through your Bit.ly account page if you’re looking for a specific link, but I find it easier to just keep note of the top shortened URLs that I need to track.  For example: I’ll make several shortened URLs for an event registration page, and then use those links on different channels like Facebook, e-mail blasts, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.  Then I can track exaclty where our traffic to the registration page is coming from.

To go back through page after page of my links on the Bit.ly account page is time consuming. I usually just take note of the Bit.ly link itself. If you have the link itself and want to see your results, you simply insert ‘info/’ into the Bit.ly URL and there you go.  Like this:

Original link:  http://bit.ly/rvShT
Info Link: http://bit.ly/info/rvShT

Got it?  Just insert the info/ like this:  bit.y/  info/ rvSHT

That link will take you right to your info page, and you can see all for your stats like so:

And then a little further downthe page, you can see the dates that people are hitting your link.  Check it out- you can view in real-time, or historically like this:

You can use these shortened (and more importantly, trackable) links anywhere- not just Twitter.  Next time you want to see how many people are coming to your site from a specific channel that you’re using to communicate – try it!

We’ll cover a little more in-depth in Part II – like how to integrate Bit.ly into your Twitter client so that you can shorten links on the fly.  We’ll also talk about how Bit.ly can integrate with TwitterFeed so you can track any RSS links that you’re posting.

I was checking out Livingston’s blog and he drew my attention to this article from by Jason Baer of Convince and Convert and thought it was a great piece that deserved some additional attention (apparently so did 50+ other people as evidenced in the comments section). Jason lists six fallacies of social media and explains as to why they are false. There are good and bad points to his arguments, and I’d like to delve further into his analysis.

1. Social Media is Inexpensive Social media tools are inexpensive. They are generally open source and shareable. Monitoring is free (unless you use a professional tool). I agree that engaging in effective social media campaigns is extremely time consuming (and therein lies the cost). Factor in hours of research, diving into communities, participating, commenting, reading, reading, and more reading. To ease the pain, consultants and agencies embracing social media as a tactic to add to their overall PR and marketing counsel should develop strategies and clear tactics. Develop clear metrics to determine viable and influential sources. Work hard, work smart, work strategically. Over time, you will identify methods of searching and pulling out the best information for your client or company’s goals, while saving valuable time and endless hours searching through infinite web content.

2. Social Media is Fast
Social media IS fast. It takes mere seconds for a blog post to go up about your company or client, for comments and responses and conversations to take place about your brand. Without effectively monitoring and participating in relevant communities, it’s very easy for things to quickly get out of hand (especially in a situation with an unhappy customer or other crisis).
Getting yourself out there is fast. It’s the follow-up and overall social network engagement that is slow. However, if you have the right research in place from the start and know exactly what people you need to contact for your client or company’s business goals; it can go a lot faster. Spending time reading and contributing to 100 social networks and blogs where only 20-50 of them may be extremely relevant is time consuming. Focusing on just those 20-50 and hitting them hard makes a lot more sense.

3. Social Media is “Viral Marketing”
Social media, at the core, is viral. It allows for interactive conversation. Blog posts, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Utterli…all these sites provide easy ways for your content to be shared and discussed.
Whether it’s a blog post or a video, the first thing to remember is that viral material starts with great content. If the content is clever AND meaningful, it will spread like wildfire. However, just because something is socialized and has gone “viral” does not mean it will necessarily have the desired outcome. Take Sarah Silverman’s “The Great Schelp” video. Viral, yes. Results, eh.

4. Social Media results can’t be measured
Social media can be measured. Like any metric the ROI is determined by the relation to the company or client’s goals. Is it sales? Is it media coverage? Is it brand reputation or recognition?
Let’s take reputation management for example. A company that is seeing multiple online conversation from unhappy customers through a high percentage of negative blog posts, Twitter updates, and message board comments has a problem. After a few months of addressing those issues directly, participating in conversations, offering customer service support, and providing value to those communities…the negative discussions decrease. That’s a social media campaign result every company would like to see. Just ask Comcast or Dell.

5. Social Media is optional
Chances are your company or client is being discussed online. But, before deciding to engage in a social media campaign simply because of that fact, consider your audience. Your audience may be online, but that does not mean they are on Facebook, on Twitter, or commenting on message boards and blogs.
It’s more important to make establishing an online brand and persona part of your business plan, a necessary part. As Andrea mentioned yesterday, a web presence is a must for any business. It’s time to stop thinking about whether or not to go online. Instead, start considering what is already being said online about your company or client. Take that knowledge and manage your online brand, whether you choose to use social media tools or not.

6. Social media is hard
Without the correct research, clear goals and strategy in mind, social media is hard and overwhelmingly complex. However, it’s not hard when you erase all the technical jargon and consider that the main benefit of engaging in social media comes down to the “humanization” factor of your company or client.
Social media is an extension of community involvement. It involves seeking out community members that share your interests and passions. It’s about talking to them, learning from them, getting to know them. It’s about connecting with them and joining together for a common cause. It’s about sharing your view with others, and listening to theirs.
The only difference between those ideas for community involvement and social media, is that these conversations and connections are taking place online. Participation and authenticity in personal relationships is easy to translate online if you change the way you think about it. There goes the neighborhood.

[From Social Media Myths and Reality]